staircase to the basement.
"Something is cooking." Rajiv lifted his chin to sniff. "Smells good."
"Oh, our daytime guard is making herself dinner. Gu Mina. Shifter from Korea." Kyo opened the double doors at the end of the hall. "This is the cafeteria and kitchen."
Dougal and the others filed inside. The cafeteria was small, with only six square tables with plastic chairs, and a row of windows overlooking the ocean. The kitchen was half-hidden behind a tall counter. A microwave sat on a small table next to a refrigerator.
"This is stocked with blood." Kyo opened the fridge and handed some bottles to the Vamps. They unscrewed the tops and stuffed all the bottles into the microwave.
Rajiv sniffed. "Smells like beef."
Kyo smiled. "You must be hungry. I will ask Gu Mina to share her food with you. Mina!" He yelled something in Japanese, and a female voice answered back.
Rajiv's eyes widened. "A girl shifter? Is she a tiger like me?"
"No, but she's an excellent fighter," Kyo told them in English. "She has worked for me for one year."
A young woman appeared in the window above the tall counter. Dougal figured she was short, since only her head could be seen. She smiled and set a tray on the counter, containing a bowl of steaming beef and noodles and a set of chopsticks and long spoon.
Rajiv smiled back and took the tray. "Thank you." He hurried over to a table, his eyes twinkling. "She's pretty," he whispered.
Angus chuckled as he removed warm bottles of blood from the microwave. "What kind of shifter is she?"
"A fox." Kyo took a sip from a bottle. "With nine tails."
Rajiv gasped and dropped his tray on the table with a clatter. "A nine-tailed fox?"
"That's a lot of tail," Gregori muttered.
Rajiv shook his head in horror. "Nine-tailed foxes are very bad. Evil!"
"She's fine," Kyo insisted. "She's very good at martial arts. Excellent with swords and knives."
"Right! So she can cut out your liver." Rajiv shuddered. "Nine-tailed foxes hate men! They eat our livers!" He backed away from his bowl of food. "She cooked a man's liver?"
"It's beef," Kyo said with an annoyed look. "I teleported it here myself. Very expensive, but it is her favorite."
"You don't believe me?" Rajiv turned to J.L. "You know the story of Korean Gumiho, right?"
J.L. shrugged. "Supposedly, the female fox shifter likes to seduce men so she can eat their livers. But it's just a fairy tale."
The female shifter sauntered from the kitchen carrying a tray. She was short and slim, with long black hair and silvery gray eyes. She set her tray on the table next to Rajiv and gave him an amused look. "Scaredy-cat."
He jumped back and hissed.
"Oh, I forgot to say," Kyo chuckled. "Gu Mina speaks very good English."
Rajiv grabbed his tray and scurried across the room. "How soon can Pooh Bear and Phil get here?"
"Tomorrow night." J.L. sat beside him. "Don't worry, bro, it could be worse."
"How?" Rajiv frowned at Mina, who was ignoring them and eating her food.
"She could have a taste for tiger meat," J.L. said, grinning.
Kyo and Angus sat down with Mina to keep her company.
While Dougal drank his bottle, he took Leah's suitcase to the female dorm room.
Gregori joined him, depositing Abby's suitcase on one of the twin-sized beds. "I guess I won't be able to sleep with my wife for a while," he grumbled.
"Yeah." Dougal eyed the bed he'd picked out for Leah. How would he ever find any time alone with her? With a sigh, he grabbed his duffel bag, then headed down the stairs to the Vamp room in the basement.
Eventually the rest of the Vamp guys joined him, dropping their duffel bags on one of the eight cots. Kyo pointed out the three cots that he, Yoshi, and Yuki were using.
Angus stretched out on his cot. "We have a few hours before we can move on to Mikhail's place in Russia."
Rajiv clambered down the stairs to their room. "You guys can't leave me alone with the fox!"
"She's not dangerous," Kyo muttered.
Rajiv sidled over to J.L. and Angus. "Let me go to Tiger Town so I can see my grandfather."
"Tiger Town?" Gregori asked.
"It's a village on the Mekong River in China where the were-tigers live," J.L. explained. "It has a name in Chinese, but you guys would have a hard time pronouncing it, so Rajiv and I call it Tiger Town."
"Dougal would be able to say it." Angus slanted him a curious look. "Ye never did tell us how ye know Chinese."
Dougal shrugged.
"Can I